Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers at Eagles: Coordinators Comments

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The 2-0 Steelers take on the 2-0 Eagles in a game to determine Pennsylvania football supremacy.

Before the Steelers hop on the turnpike for Philly we got a chance to hear from the coordinators about where they feel their respective units are after two weeks of regular season football.

Defense

Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler talked about the challenges the defense faces this week going up against a rookie quarterback in Carson Wentz. He wouldn’t concede an advantage for either side considering they’ve never gone up against Wentz before but he’s never gone up against this defense either.

He did comment on the play-making abilities Wentz has shown so far, particularly after getting hit.

“I’ve seen him get hit plenty time and then get back up and make big throws.” – Keith Butler

Butler also talked up his secondary, which has done a surprisingly good job so far this season. He attributes their success to secondary coach Carnell Lake.

“Secondary coach Carnell Lake does a good job with them. They spend a lot of time watching film, studying the game plan. Fridays they have a meeting with Mike. He is an old secondary coach himself so he likes to get his two cents in. He is the head coach and sometimes the head coach doesn’t get to coach as much as the assistants do.” – Keith Butler

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When asked about the defense’s success in the red zone as far as only allowing two touchdowns total this season Butler attributes it to the “seven shots” drill the team performs in practices. The defense goes up against the offense for seven chances to score and the winner gets bragging rights in the facilities.

Special Teams

Special teams coordinator Danny Smith is coming off of a good week against the Bengals were Jordan Berry’s punting was even praised by head coach Mike Tomlin. For a team that has been known to have “junior varsity punts” it’s refreshing to have the punting game give the defense an advantage.

Smith talked about the advantage Berry gave the team in field position in the 24-16 win over the Bengals.

“He has really grown as a player. He has matured. He is a good player, he is a good athlete. He is very strong legged. It’s his total game. We are trying to improve on a consistent basis. Right now it’s on the rise and we expect it to continue. He is doing a lot of things well. Now it’s a matter of the consistency and that is what we are striving to achieve.” – Danny Smith

Offense

Offensive coordinator Todd Haley talked about the growth he has seen out of second-year tight end Jesse James. James and the rest of the tight end committee has had to step up in the absence of Ladarius Green while he recovers from an ankle injury that has kept him sidelined since the offseason.

“We saw improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. Once you are in a season that is what we care about the most. The first game that was a position we were looking forward to seeing if they were ready to step in and help us. We saw enough in the first game to feel good about it. In the second game was more growth.” – Todd Haley

Haley talked about how to adjust the offense when going up against 4-3 schemed defenses. He praised the offensive line and said that he expects the group to lead the team throughout the season. When asked about how well right tackle Marcus Gilbert has played he praised him.

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“I don’t know what right tackle is playing better right now, I really don’t.” – Todd Haley

With the return of Markus Wheaton Haley basically challenges the rest of the receivers to force Haley’s hand as far as taking him off of the field. Whoever plays the best gets the most chances to catch balls from Ben Roethlisberger.

That’s got to be a pretty sweet incentive for any of the receivers to get out there and ball out. With Antonio Brown drawing the attention that he does from each defense the other receivers have to be able to pounce on those chances and take advantage of the looks that will create for them.